Decision made

I decided my lovely dole cupboard needed "dressing up" - so here is my favourite battered old jug - repaired with tin strapping after the handle broke off because it was someone else's favourite old jug too . . .

 I went to the Unit yesterday, and put some new stuff in, and took a few things out.  Ingoing were some more personal effects, including the last of Keith's militaria.   I took a chunk off the price of the Windsor chair in there, as it lives in the kitchen here and takes up a lot of room.

In my mind, my intention is to draw out at the end of Sept, though I have to give a month's notice so it will be end of Oct. I go.  Unless there is a huge radical change, this is not working for me.  I have sold two pieces in two months, the expensive one a piece from my home - and now some more personal collectables have gone into the Unit.  I am considerably out of pocket.  It is a loooooong drive when nothing is moving at the Unit.  Pleasant enough in the summer but not in the wintertime.  If I was selling jewellery, I'd be laughing.  My girls have the expertise with jewellery, but I have not and with the price of gold and silver right now, no way can I afford to start again.

Ah well.  Such is life.  I stopped off at my other friend Pam's house for a natter and to pick up some jam jars.  Some have been soaking overnight to get the labels off.  It feels a bit like being given money, as they cost £1.50 or so each to buy.  I did go in Charlie's yesterday (country store) and bought 4 of the nice hexagonal jars for special gifts.  

We have had a little rain but not enough to really matter.  The big fires at Rhandirmwn and near Rhayader are now under control/out, thank heavens.  The ones above and around the Valleys not put out but more controlled, and there are now Military helping out (looked like the Ghurkas from Brecon).  

Autumn has definitely arrived early - the heat and lack of rain has caused plants to sacrifice their leaves and the Beech, Hazels and bigger-leaved trees are suffering.  It is 14 deg out at present (19 or so later).  I am planning an early walk and then try and get my head around the dress for Rosie.  I have nothing planned now until the very end of the month.  No excuse not to clean the windows!

Yesterday's podcast was The Rest is History - 4 (out of 6) wondrful podcasts about Elizabeth 1 and the political shennanigans of her reign, plus a wonderful one about Sir Francis Drake - I'd loved to have met him.  I am now a lot more informed about this, one of my favourite periods in history.

Biting off more than I can chew . . . and update

 When I hefted my lovely new (old) cupboard, I began to wonder it hanging it on the wall would result in a large chunk of wall falling off with the cupboard . . .  It is solid oak.  Armed with a suitable bribe (Chocolate Apple Cake) I went to see Sam. . .  He came and had a look and we reckoned that perhaps configuring current furniture and moving the dairy table to the other end of the long kitchen table, and sifting the oak settle along a bit might do the trick.  Then we could sit the cupboard on the dairy table.  I would have to move the two lovely old Windsor chairs which had formerly sat either end, but we would manage things somehow.  I've moved a chair round in my bedroom and popped one up there for the time being.

So I have had a shift around and a giant vacuuming bits that haven't been reached properly for . . . a while! . . . and have been going through boxes and bags of family history folders and research, old mail, scribbled notes, postcards, a pile of books I mean to read but stacked under the dairy table, everything stacked on the dairy table . . .  Oh my goodness, I did not enjoy that.  I have deep cleaned the hall too, taken out the little Secessionist chair by Adolph Loos in Vienna in 1930 - ready to polish up and take to the Unit this week. I've just put leather balm on the seat and back and it looks lovely.  

In the middle of all this frantic sorting out, I had to make jam as I had put the Jumbleberry jam ingredients in the pan to thaw out overnight and it needed cooking sooner rather than later.  That gave me another 5 jars to add to the Christmas hamper shelf in the cupboard.

Now I'm back later with a photo of the shifting around.  My Dorset friend D would call this "the moveits".  She has a PhD in this . . . Everything went back to the same place :)

Confession - I spent some money on ME

 

A post in reverse . . . this was taken on the way home from Leominster with my friend Pam again.  Hang gliders on a hillside near Hundred House. We had a lovely day out.  

Lovely old Georgian houses (some in sad condition though) at the entrance to the car park. The one with the double doors was a coaching inn, back in the day. It's called The Coach House.

A nice old sampler from 1889.

A 19th C (Berlin) woolwork picture.

Upstairs - a nice rustic Unit.

Back downstairs . . .

Love this, but not the price!  

Some nice pieces of Majolica across this stand and that FABULOUS old Welsh love spoon.

Finally, what I fell in love with last week and went back to look more closely at and purchase today:

A Gothic Revival Dole Cupboard.  A Victorian copy of a 16th C piece.  The two central panels replaced at some point I think in the last century.  Wrong handle - I will look through Keith's supply of brass reproduction drop handles for it. I love the old butterfly hinges and the small square carvings.  VERY much the sort of thing Keith and I would have put in Ynyswen. Here it is going to probably go above the settle in the kitchen, where I currently have the clock.  Need to measure up...  20" - it will fit.  I am thrilled to bits with it.  The look I like at the price I can afford!  I felt, even when I first saw it and thought WOW, that Keith was at my elbow, encouraging me to buy it . . .

Treading water . . . then a Severe Alert!

 I was very - for me VERY - late to bed last night, as the hooligan Pippi decided it was SUCH a balmy evening after a hot day where she'd had to hide inside, and perhaps she would stay out longer.  I can't sleep unless she is in.  I was ready for bed at 9.  She FINALLY came home, all innocent, at 11.30 . . .  She had never been out after dark before and was clearly making the most of her freedom.  Needless to say I have been tired today and stayed indoors after I had watered round. Payment has been some small tomatoes which I had at lunchtime, and a cucumber. New folk come to stay from this weekend.  It has thankfully been cooler today  - only 24 deg after yesterday's 31 or 32 deg. which was suffocating.

This is the pattern and I am doing version B.  It's all cut out and I have been working (slowly) on the shoulder straps this afternoon and have them assembled and gathered and just sewn one end onto the wrong side of the fabric.  So I will get back to it tomorrow.  I know, a pathetic amount of "work" on it, but been distracted by other things.

I have been listening to a programme about the Folklore (worldwide) associated with giving birth, from The Three Ravens podcast.  Having put the sewing aside, till my brain is more awake, I began cutting up windfall apples to cook up with some of my recently picked and frozen blackberries, to make Blackberry and Apple Jelly for Thankyou gifts/Christmas gifts.  

The fires seem to be all under control now but a lot of damage done.  Horrid to read about the ones in Stourbridge and Dudley where homes have been lost.  

I am covered in fresh bites and can report the damage done when a bitey thing gets inside your knickers . . .  I have bites everywhere - this hot spell obviously encouraged more bitey things to hatch out.

Praying for rain here . . .  The 30% chance of it hasn't shown up today . . .

Just leapt out of my seat when my phone came up with a Severe Alert!  Unfortunately all in Welsh so I couldn't translate it.  Went to the Gov.uk site and it's warning everyone here not to have fires, BBQ's, etc etc . . . as if the intelligent enough amongst us didn't already know this!  Gosh, that really startled me.  I thought there was a fire in the vicinity.  Then it did it again in English . . .  Didn't jump so high then.

According to NASA, Powys is the worst affected by wild fires - 166.  Then Blaeneau Gwent with 113 and Carmarthenshire with 101.

Miss Huggins - you did me NO favours

 Miss Huggins was our needlework teacher at senior school.  When we had spent endless months working on a simple x-stitch on large count Aida, we finally got to learn how to thread a sewing machine, change a bobbin etc.  Then we were "tought" to use the machine (I hated it).  We were meant to be making a blouse, with short sleeves and a collar.  Well, by the time I had spent nearly two YEARS sewing and then unpicking my tacking stitches every week, I blardy LOATHED it and when it was finally finished, it was too small for me.  What a waste of rations she was.  Just gone back through time and looked up my old school and see other girls had the same problem!!

Which is why today I am making an absolute horlicks of just cutting out Rosie's little dress.  I have managed to work out sewing the first bit of bodice together, but then hit a brick wall when it came to the shoulder strap, which for cutting out was placed on the fold.  Well, that can't be right, as now I have one very WIDE piece and not two narrower shoulder straps . . .  Plus there is a slight shaping to one side of the strap/s and in the picture they look straight!  So, foiled right at the very beginning.  I think I will just cut that piece in half lengthways and straighten the bendy edge and proceed. That was for size 1-2 years.  Size 3 years shows it pinned to the selvedge . . .

It is still a bit hazy here from the smoke, but doesnt smell as smokey.  The one at Llangynidr is almost under control now, and apparently the one at Rhayader is getting under control.  Yet as fast as that happens, the happy arsonists set more fires.  A couple of random small-at-the-moment ones just out of Llanwrtyd Wells but look to be on farms.  

Saw that the Co-op had two steaks and chips on offer for £4 this week, so guess what I'm having for tea.  One steak to go in the freezer.  Beans from the garden.

WIldfires and Smoke - update: and two NEW fires!

 I shall be staying indoors mostly for the next couple of days as we have smoke being blown up here from the fire above Ebbw Vale (Llangynidr).  Below that on the FireMap are others lit by happy little Arsonists on their school holidays . . .  Llangynidr had been largely put out once, then someone restarted it.  Bring back the birch . . .

Billy Blue Eyes - I hope you're not down at the caravan at the moment.  It is due to go in a different direction on Friday.  Hopefully sooner.

There is a big hill you can't see for smoke.

I've just been out and watered round - Ed's and mine - and am glad to get in out of the smoke as it does my lungs no good.  I shall lurk inside now.  I have my Electricia air purifier on beside me - used to use it at Ynyswen when pollen was bad.  

Covered in bites from yesterday - mozzies?  Blardy itchy anyway.

Keep safe and cool everyone.

4 p.m. update - a breeze has sprung up and blown most of the smoke away/higher and I can see the quarry again and the hills beyond Builth.  Phew.  Let's hope it keeps it away.

Update: 5.30 p.m.   TWO new fires to the West and S-West.  One on Gwastedyn Hill, overlooking Rhayader.  Had this been yesterday, I would have had trouble getting home methinks.  

The other is in the Forestry at Rhandirmwn (Llyn Brianne reservoir way).  That looks pretty bad too.  

Those poor fire crews - never a moment's peace at the moment.  Praying for heavy rain . . .

Open Gardens

 

Pam and I had another little jaunt on Sunday afternoon, visiting two Open Gardens off the Hundred House road near Franksbridge.  I forgot to take photos of the first garden, but she had a lovely Zen Garden by the house, and a super polytunnel crammed with good veg, and a separate soft fruit cage.  All beautifully set out.  She loved Acer trees and had amassed quite a few to plant out when we are not in draught conditions!  She had only been there four years but achieved lots.  

Pam was delighted to see that amongst the plants for sale were lots of Teasels.  She had been planning to buy some seeds and grow some next year.  For a donation (she paid £2 each I think) she got half a dozen and was so pleased, as she cares for her wild birds and is very diligent, washing feeders every other day and putting out all sorts of goodies for them.  The Teasels are for the birds. There were some growing in the garden and she was shocked at how tall they were and didn't know what they looked like!  I think she was thinking knee-height . . .

Isn't this a lovely idea for the bashed sort of Belfast sink, not smart enough to use indoors?

Black Knight Hollyhocks and lots of different roses, all with name labels.  I was just looking up prices (thinking of some here for my roses) and saw some made from squares of slate . . . Now, I have a pile of the original slate tiles from the house, 3/4 buried in a corner of the orchard triangle . . . That gives me an idea.

We could have sat beside this for ages.  There is something so tranquil and relaxing about the sound of a fountain . . .

Plus they had a clay-lined lily pond.

Above and below: both houses (one a former barn) had lovely peaceful views across the countryside.  Pam had to be dragged away - this was her dream house/garden - either property!

Then we drove up the road to the church where tea/squash and cake was on offer.  I had carrot cake and Pam had a lemon topped sponge.  That hit the spot.

It's Monday morning and before breakfast I went and watered round my neighbour's polytunnel and gave his little Orange Pippin tree a good drink as she was looking peaky.  Pippi came to help me (this is her favourite haunt, where she catches meeces and voles.)  I noticed there were a load of wild blackberries along the boundary and picked a pound of those to freeze.

Then off to Llandod for grocery shopping before it got too hot.  I was early enough to nab two lots of reduced strawberries in Tesco - cheap enough to make jam with - so I shall do that in a little while.  The Jordan's berry granola I like was on special offer, reduced from repriced from £4.30 each to £2.75, so I got two.  Earl Grey tea on offer but you had to buy four full packs of 80 each at £5 a time, to get one free.  I didn't want to spend £15 on tea this week.  I will wait until they have a good offer on a single pack and buy two.  I got another pack of good bread flour (Cotswold Crunch) to keep stocked up.  I went to Aldi too, for a bottle of wine as Gabby is here overnight at the end of the week, and some fresh Beanshoots for my chicken stir fry tonight.  

Today's Podcast from The Three Ravens, was Lugnasa, Lammas and Harvest Folklore, very detailed and very enjoyable.  I learned so much.

Everything has been watered, so I will go upstairs now and see if I can get the little dress for Rosie cut out.  This will be my first attempt at clothes-making since I made myself a maternity nightie when I was pregnant with Tamzin!  Wish me well!